The Prime Minister is making her first visit overseas and will stay in the department for three days. It is expected at the turn by the inhabitants on the subject of inflation, while the prices of food products, already higher than in mainland France, have increased by 1.6% in one year.
“Before it was 30 or 40 cents, and now it’s 50 cents at all the merchants”. In Reunion, this seller is bitter on the Saint-Denis cauldron market. Samosa, one of the island’s flagship products, has seen its price skyrocket in recent months, like the food basket of this overseas department, up 8.9% in one year , according to INSEE.
It is in this context that Elisabeth Borne must arrive this Thursday morning in Reunion for her first visit overseas. The Prime Minister will remain until Saturday, with the objective of “understanding” and “responding” to the “daily concerns” of the inhabitants, against the backdrop of the announced challenge of the opposition.
After laying a wreath at the War memorial in Saint-Denis, the host of Matignon will visit a water transfer project (underground aqueduct) and inaugurate a France Service house in the town of Salazie, in the center of the island, before to meet several elected officials and economic players in the afternoon.
“Everyday life”
Just before taking off on Wednesday evening, she celebrated in Paris the National Day of Memories of the Slave Trade, Slavery and their Abolition, an issue that remains sensitive overseas.
Between ceremonies and official interviews, sequences dedicated to ecology, housing, employment or agriculture, an intense program awaits the Prime Minister for this three-day visit to the Indian Ocean, which she is making with four ministers Christophe Béchu (Ecological Transition), Marc Fesneau (Agriculture), Olivier Klein (Housing) and Jean-François Carenco (Overseas).
“The common thread is really daily life, the concerns of the inhabitants of the island and how we respond to all these concerns”, we insist at Matignon.
A “symbolic trip” in the eyes of the Prime Minister a few days before the first anniversary of her appointment rue de Varenne, to “show her attachment to the overseas territories and defend the action of her government there”.
A movement disturbed by “pans”?
A stated desire, also, to go into contact with the population in a context of persistent contestation of the pension reform and disturbed official travel. The task promises to be delicate for the head of government in Reunion where the unions and La France insoumise have launched calls for protest, pans in hand, throughout the visit. No ban on demonstrations is envisaged at this stage.
“The Prime Minister is coming to meet the people of Reunion”, we insist rue de Varenne.
Without an absolute majority in the Assembly, weakened by the use of 49.3 on pensions, Élisabeth Borne faces a most uncertain political equation, armed with a new imposing and changing government roadmap – the executive has changed once again timetable on the immigration aspect – and a presidential review clause set for July 14.
It is this roadmap, which extends beyond the “hundred days” decreed by the Head of State, that Elisabeth Borne will present in Reunion. Upstream of an interministerial committee on overseas planned “in the coming weeks”, according to Matignon.
In this French department in the Indian Ocean, where according to INSEE, 36% of the inhabitants live below the poverty line and where pensions are the lowest in France, the pension reform has raised strong dissatisfaction. On January 31, 10,000 people had responded to the call to demonstrate launched by the local inter-union.
Inflation of 3.9% in one year
The mobilization in the street then decreased over the rallies.
“13 days of strike and therefore 13 days without being paid, it is not bearable for many workers” explains Joël Dalleau, general secretary of the CFDT.
According to INSEE, inflation reached 3.9% in one year on the island. Over the same period, food products increased by 1.6%. These increases are recorded when prices were already on average 37% higher than in mainland France.
Some 230,000 of Reunion’s 860,000 inhabitants receive the RSA (active solidarity income). During her trip, Elisabeth Borne will notably visit the Pôle Emploi agency in Saint-Leu-Les Trois Bassins. The island is indeed one of the departments experimenting with the France Travail reform aimed at strengthening support for beneficiaries.
On the other hand, according to Matignon, no incursion planned in Mayotte where the “Wuambushu” operation carried out by the French authorities continues to dislodge from the slums of undocumented migrants, the vast majority of whom come from the neighboring islands of the Comoros.
A visit, a fortiori primo-ministerial, being “the last thing that the civil servants engaged in the field need” in these circumstances, we explain to Matignon.
